The Video-on-Demand (VOD) pump acts as a video streaming server. It is configured with a processor and a large storage medium, such as a hard disk drive system. The hard disk drive system may be an array of hard drives, which provide content to the processor at a very high bandwidth. The VOD pump may thus be part of a system of servers.
Currently, content that is coming out of the VOD pump is not encrypted. Generally, the content is provided by a private network, e.g., the content is provided by a cable provider from the network of the cable provider. The network provider exerts control over that network and usually the VOD pump is disposed within a controlled facility. Thus, historically, network providers have not been terribly concerned about the security of the content.
Content providers today, however, are becoming increasingly concerned about the protection of the content that they create. Thus, having the content streaming over a network where somebody could be listening to and/or recording the content is a concern. Obviously, transmitting the content in the clear further down all the way to the subscriber is also a concern. That is the way VOD content was provided to the subscribers for many years because a special application was needed to even identify where the content was. Thus, there was not much concern about someone stealing the content. However, as QAM televisions and QAM tuners for computers began to enter the market, there was increasing concern for providing secure or encrypted content.
Because of the complexity associated with encryption and video pump functions, provisioning encryption capabilities in a video pump has been avoided. As described above, such encryption has always been place further down the delivery path. However, the advancement of capabilities for televisions and tuners and competition among service providers, makes encrypting content at the QAMs too expensive and creates unacceptable risk for high-value content in an unencrypted format. Moreover, as video pumps have been placed further away from the edge, greater access to unencrypted content is subjected to access by a greater number of people.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for providing session based encryption from a video pump.